Village Debates Buying Water from Portland

Pondville, Ore., a small community of 63 families, is deciding whether or not to buy public water from nearby Portland after its wells went dry and brackish earlier this year.

Portland has offered to extend its water lines by nine miles to reach the rural community, one of the few remaining areas in Sumner County with no public water utility. The project would be funded by federal grants and loans and the County Commission.

"I'm going to try to call a meeting of all the residents as soon as possible to talk about it and see if they are willing to make a commitment to the project," Pondville resident Dayton Bradley said. "We need to find out whether the projected monthly cost is something everyone will accept."

If the project goes through, Pondville residents would have to pay a one-time $1,000 tap fee and $50 hook-up fee, and may be paying a monthly $39.21 for 5,000 gallons of water.

"We'd like to be able to get the monthly cost down to about the same as Portland's other 1,634 customers ... about $29 a month. We're continuing to seek more funding," Bradley said.

Portland officials have already spent about $15,000 on engineering the planned water line between the city and Pondville. Now all they need is a final word from Pondville.